Sunday, March 04, 2007

Sunday 03/04 A.M. Quickie:One Week 'Til Selection Sunday

UPDATE: So much for my inspired pick to have Southern Illinois as my fourth No. 1 seed. Nothing has a shorter shelf life than seed placement during Championship Week and the final games of the regular season. So Ill will still be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament (as will Creighton). Meanwhile: Could Florida have re-found its mojo in Gainesville during the second half of today's win over Kentucky (which, for all its many flaws, was still No. 10 in the RPI). More tomorrow a.m.

I had a huge lead-in topic, but I'm saving it for tomorrow or Tuesday. So we're left with a super-quick look at the day's top storylines (see yesterday's post for more CBB):

weird few days for a brand new UVA fan (my girlfriend just got into the grad school there, and our college now is D-3)... one of the biggest wins in recent history, followed by one of the biggest losses in recent history

Actually, UF found its mojo in the first half, too. Even though it was tied, no one in the arena was that nervous, because the team proved they haven't actually forgotten how to play basketball (which the past few games indicated they might have).

But a better test to see if they're really back will be the SEC Tourney this week. If they keep it up and make at least a run to the finals, then maybe we can move 'em back up to the one-line. But for today, just knowing they remember how to play is more than enough.

UVA stinks, they are coached by the idiot who coached DePaul in thje worst basketball game I ever witnessed live, a tournament game vs. Dayton. There is no offensive structure to that team, he lets Singletary, who is awesome, do waht ever he wants, while the others stand around. Its like he takes athletes and rolls the ball out and thems them do whatever, any decently coached team will send them home early. Awful coach.

By the way, though it was a dirty foul by the Duke player (ignore Billy Packer's moronic comments to the contrary), you can put the blame squarely on Roy Williams' shoulders for leaving Hansbrough in a game that was already sealed up. This late in the year when you're going to need your big guy more than ever come tournament time (when it really counts), and you leave him out there when the game is already a foregone conclusion. That's a rookie coach mistake by a guy who has been around for a long time (not that it has improved his common sense at all).

Well, all the original talk of Florida's demise was ridiculous anyways. People talked about their loss of a 1-seed as meaning that they'd be out of the tournament in the first weekend.Last I heard, a 2-seed isn't bad either.

Something to note though...while Ohio State is being criticized for not blowign teams out...they are at least winning the close games while the other contenders come up short.

Connect With Me

Quickish

About This Blog

DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.